I transferred to UIC from a different college and that being said I have only been a student at this university for two weeks. Not only has it been two weeks but I have had a sprained ankle for the past two weeks that has greatly affected my time being here. The times I have gone to school, I’ve had to drive to and from campus. This has been an unsustainable impact I have made on campus. Will Tour stated that, “The daily movement of people back and forth to campus in automobiles burning fossil fuels is one of the largest impacts a typical educational institution imposes on the life support systems of the planet”. UIC being in the city makes it easy for its students by providing them with great access to different forms of transportation. Not only can you commute by train or bus but biking would be the best alternative.
I admit I have made an unsustainable impact my two weeks being at UIC but I also make sustainable impacts in my community. I have drastically cut down shower time by about twenty minutes. I also have a small garden in my back yard that produces a variety of vegetables we use daily for cooking our meals. In the neighborhood I live in we have blue trashcans and the majority of my neighborhood recycles. Little things like using a reusable water bottle can make a difference in both, making our community and our campus a more sustainable place. “In our current way of seeing the world, the environment is just a collection of problems; we won’t protect it until we correctly see nature as a collection of solutions – a regenerating form of wealth we literally can’t live without…Why not use knowledge about how nature works, to meet more of our needs? ((Wann 2007), p. 108)”. The more people are informed of unsustainability, the more they will see what a danger it is to our planet.
Sources:
Toor, Will, and Spenser Woodworth. Havlick. Transportation & Sustainable Campus Communities: Issues, Examples, Solutions. Washington, D.C.: Island, 2004. Print.
Principles of Urban Sustainability 
I understand where you’re coming from. I also tend to drive a lot more than what I wish to admit, but living in a transit desert forces me to choose between driving and taking a bus that comes once ever half hour or so. Sometimes it is easier to drive however I feel that as commuter students we should try to cut back our driving as much as we can.
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You really bring up another problem, Chicago’s transi system. The CTA is seen as very big deal to many people yet I don’t beloved it delivers to that standard. Even the loop is seen amazing due to its complexity I just feel that Chicago’s transit dosent have buses everywhere and they don’t have them rub as often and long as they should. They also have issues with there trains, the express purple line runs on slow tracks causing floods of people on the red line and the yellow line has been down for weeks. The CTA is just not reliable as it should be and I completely understand where your coming from.
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I too drive more often than necessary. Growing your own fruits and vegetables is a great thing and saves money along with reducing emissions going into the air. Maybe you can find people to car pool with in the coming semester.
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Having your own garden sounds amazing, not only to have fresh produce on hand but cutting down on money and gas to go to stores. On lazy days, I rather drive to the store than walk the four blocks to get there, not something I am proud of. Trying to be better to not drive is something good to work on. Hope your ankle is better, by the way!
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